You're my goal

Chapter 1

*Ashlyn's POV*

The day is clear, a blue sky with few clouds. God, I wish there were more clouds in the sky. More shade would be relieving in this heat. Is New York always this humid? For how often I travel I really should know. I stop fiddling my thumbs to look over at Savannah.

"Where is the park again?" My question finally broke the drowsy silence.

"Right up the street, and I'm tired of waiting. Let's go."

I scoff at my her impatience, "Look at you calling the shots. We're going to be a half hour early if we leave now."

"Because you insisted on leaving this early! You're intolerable."

Yet I can see her suppressing a smirk. I shrugged my shoulders in spite of myself and jogged to catch up with her. There was no point in arguing, she's too stubborn. As I met her side again, to my luck, I lost my footing and sprawled out on the ground.

Savannah's face fell flat when she turned to see what the abrupt noise was, and even I had no clue what had just hit me. "Look what all that balance training has been doing for you!" She bursts into laughter.

"Oh give me a break it's the offseason!"

We both laugh at the thought of how relaxed our breaks from work are. Yet even work doesn't exactly feel like 'work', not when you're just having fun with your teammates- your friends. How could it ever feel that way? Besides, they're more like my family. We spend every day with each other, even when we aren't working. They're all I have left, but I don't want to think about that again.

My first impression of the park was like any other. It's giant and open, and wide paths filled by a dark black cement run throughout with grass surrounding the outside. We walk to the center of the park to find a huge fountain, where two people are setting something up; I couldn't fabricate a guess as to what.

"Who would be here at 6 am? I thought that's why we got up early." Savannah rubs the back of her head and looks at me.

"It's New York, Sav. It's not like there's a million people here who use the public recreations." I quipped in the most sarcastic tone that I could muster.

She nudges me in the ribs  and we run to the nearest bathroom. Small, gross, smelly. 

"Definitely public," I gag.

Two out of the three toilets were clogged leaving the third one locked and vacant.

"You'd think our paychecks would have us doing better than this."

I nodded slightly in agreement.

Only the thing was, I didn't really agree. Not about the money, because being a professional athlete paid a generous sum of money, but with every paycheck I receive I always find a charity to donate half of it to; generally to the local orphanages. I don't need this money, not this much anyways. I don't need fancy shoes, expensive makeup, a nice car, or an over sized house. These luxuries didn't appeal to me, and it wasn't how I was raised. 

Luckily, neither of us had to use the bathroom. We came to change into our clothes for the day. With the rest of the team occupying every room in the penthouse, we figured this would be easier and we wouldn't wake anyone up.

"Look I'm not asking a lot of you, but if we're going to be seen in public why don't you throw on something nice?" She was joking, I know. Still, I'm confident some part of her cringes when I choose to wear old tshirts that clash with the rest of my clothes.

Maybe this time she has a point. I look over my outfit, noting my worn down cleats. They had patched up holes, loose threads of red fraying from the Nike arrow, and I can see where the black sole of my shoe was gorilla glued and sewn multiple times over in an attempt to keep the two pieces from falling apart. But the laces were new, and I sure as hell wasn't throwing my lucky pair of cleats away. My black shorts had two thick, white stripes running mid way down my thigh, and to complete the ensemble, I was wearing an old blue t-shirt I received in college while playing on the Notre Dame team. The words that read "Notre Dame Soccer" across the front were beginning to fade away.

Savannah was sporting pink cleats, black athletic shorts, and a branded pink shirt. Her hair was in a firm but messy bun.

"Maybe next time you'll let me pick something out for you."

I gave her a pity laugh, "Good one, but I'll pass." I'm so accustomed to Savannah by now that I know this isn't a matter to be discussed seriously. She notices things I would doubt anyone else observes.

"Don't you want to look, I don't know, presentable?"

"Oh absolutely not. It doesn't support my image."

"Yeah, you've really perfected the 'I have money but I still choose to shop out of a trash can look'."

"God I hope so."

We both laughed as we approached an expanse of flat ground. There's two soccer goals on both sides of the stretch.

"Looks like they beat us here." I said, dragging Savanna into a jogging effort over to them. Several separate conversations continued amongst the team until we gathered their attention. "Ok 11v11. Sav and I choose teams." Naturally everyone knows this. I'm captain of the team and Savanna is my assistant captain.

We each picked our players  until everyone was selected. Pretty even teams, I thought to myself. Sav must have read my face because she yelled over that anyone on my team will win. I throw my hands up in complaint as I walk back over to my team who is making a low cheer of approval. We know the game plan. We're set to be here all day. So, everyone begins to stretch, and lay out water before we start.

As we lined up for the draw, Sav nudged me and eyed up four guys who were walking by. Sav and I usually have a very different taste in guys but I couldn't help but find them to be attractive.

"Let me win?" She whispered as I grabbed the ball off of the ground.

She must not have realized that we were thinking the same thing. "Never."

"Yeah that's what I figured."

"Ready? Here we go." I punted the ball straight up and we both scrambled to touch in first.